Translation, cross-cultural adaptation and psychometric properties of the Thai version of the Trunk Control Measurement Scale for children with cerebral palsy

Background: Trunk impairment is an important clinical feature in children with cerebral palsy (CP), therefore assessment of trunk control is a crucial part of functional assessment in children with CP. Objectives: The study aimed to translate the Trunk Control Measurement Scale (TCMS) from the original English into a Thai version and demonstrate the reliability and validity of the TCMS-TH among children with spastic CP. Materials and methods: The TCMS was translated using standard cross-cultural adaptation guidelines. The final TCMS-TH was tested on 29 children with spastic CP aged 5-15 years. For inter-rater reliability, two assessors independently scored the children from the video recording using the TCMS-TH. One month after the first assessment, a second assessment was performed to determine intra-rater reliability. The convergent validity of the TCMS-TH was assessed by comparison to the Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM-88). The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and Pearson’s correlation coefficient were used to analyze reliability and validity. Results: The TCMS-TH had good internal consistency, with Cronbach’s alpha = 0.916 for the total TCMS-TH. Inter-rater reliability was good to excellent, ICC = 0.837-0.955, whereas intra-rater reliability was excellent, ICC =0.918-0.995. The TCMS-TH and the GMFM has moderate to high correlation (r=0.631-0.810). Conclusion: The TCMS-TH is a reliable and valid tool for assessing trunk control in children with spastic CP. However, its outcomes are primarily generalizable to observations obtained from video recordings rather than direct in-person assessments. Despite this limitation, the TCMS-TH remains a valuable tool for both clinical practice and research settings.